Hill said DeVos pays for “all her travel expenses including flights, hotels, etc., out of pocket and at no expense to taxpayers.” Since coming to office, DeVos’ only charge to the department was one roundtrip Amtrak ticket from DC to Philadelphia for $184. Hill added that DeVos also covers travel expenses for her security detail or any other staff accompanying her on the aircraft.

Obviously, ability to pay is not the top skill set we look for in a public official. And I guess it’s a little weird the education secretary flies around on her own plane (but really, who amongst us wouldn’t stop flying commercial if we could). But the bottom line seems to be that she’s spending less taxpayer dollars on travel than her predecessors rather than more as result – even though more is what the phrase private jet immediately conjures up.

Here is Stan Greenberg’s after-action on the Clinton 2016 campaign. The Democrats’ dilemma, or part of it, it seems to me is that voters are hungry for candidates who are outsiders and who will disrupt a pretty insular system that doesn’t work for too many Americans. That’s why “drain the swamp” is at once a punchline and a sentiment that resonates with a lot of Americans. This issue should be a natural for Democrats who relish attacking monopolies, self-dealing financial arrangements, and structural barriers to opportunities. Problem is, that doesn’t just describe banks and parts of corporate America – it arguably also describes our education system and its constellation of special interests. People get that and in today’s politics it’s hard to be half a reformer.

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